PW: To Read or Not to Read

The subway door opens at my back and I barely notice the draft of air as people get on and off hurrying on their morning commute. I turn the page of my magazine.

"What are you reading?” a man asks from behind me. “Publisher’s Weekly?”

I turn without thinking. The subway door closes behind us and I move in a few feet as he enters. The man leans over me, taller by a few inches, stylishly dressed with wool overcoat and tie, loose at his neck. He’s an agent I know more as a fellow parent from my neighborhood, though I’ve sent work his way before – and been turned down.

“Hey, Ben,” I say as I fold the PW in half and offer my hand. He takes it.

The subway starts and we both readjust our footing.

“Why are you reading the children’s section?” he asks.

I look down at it as if to remind myself that I was, indeed, reading the children’s book reviews. “I read them to find books for Max.” Which is true because Max is three and a half and a big reader and trying to find a book that he’ll like is a treasure hunt.

Ben looks at me, puzzled for a moment, then with dawning realization, nods, “Sure, sure.” He has a two year old. Trying to make conversation I ask him about the Halloween Parade. He answers, scanning the car. The subway stops at 23rd street and we get off.

“I forget we both work in the same area,” I say as he goes up one staircase and I, after hesitating a second, purposely go up another. He nods and waves goodbye, taking big steps in big shoes that have been polished to a nice shine.

I remember the first time I met Ben, at a parents group in my neighborhood. While I was chasing after Max and he was drinking a beer, I mentioned to him that I read PW. About ten years ago at a Small Press workshop I attended in NYC a panel of agents had proclaimed to the audience the importance of writer’s reading PW and I’d been trying to use it to score points with prospective agents ever since. Ben didn’t seem impressed. I’ve talked about my knowledge of PW to other people in publishing before - slipped it into casual dinner conversation suavely. “Please pass the salt and have you read the article in PW about the latest list change at Penguin?” Maybe it’s my delivery. Maybe there’s a secret code or handshake that I need to learn and just haven’t stumbled across yet that only people really in the publishing business know.

In my own informal survey two agents (both of whom actually represented me) and at least a dozen other publishing professionals haven’t seemed to care whether I read PW or not. I never see anybody reading PW on the subway, except me. This would not be strange in any other town, but this is New York and New York is publishing. I have friends who say they read it but I never see stacks of them in their apartments, and there should be stacks because it is a weekly and that’s fifty-two issues a year. On the other hand I throw them out after I read them so that may not mean anything. As a matter of fact, now that I think about it, I’ve never seen anybody read it at all. Yet it’s the weekly of the book publishing business and everybody in publishing should be reading it, right?

According to Wikipedia On-line Encyclopedia, the circulation of PW was reported to be approximately 25,000, including 6000 publishers; 5500 public libraries and public library systems; 3800 booksellers; 1600 authors and writers; 1500 college and university libraries; 950 print, film and broad media; and 750 literary and rights agents, among others. Whether people read it or not, somebody’s buying it.

So let’s say, just for argument’s sake, that you, a writer trying to keep up with the publishing world, are in fact not just buying, but reading PW and not any of the other pre-publication review magazines like Kirkus Reviews (circulation about 4,000 but most of them are librarians), Booklist (a magazine of the American Library Association with circulation of over 24,000 ... librarians) or the Library Journal (circulation of about 20,000, you guessed it, librarians), instead. No, you go with the tried and true PW that’s been around since 1872 and has only in the last year, under the tutelage of new Editor-in-Chief Sara Nelson, undergone a huge color transformation and format face-lift.

First, you should know it’s an incredibly expensive magazine. Amazon sells a year subscription for $199 and it’s the cheapest I’ve found. This makes me angry, though, because I re-subscribed last spring for $225, the discounted-for-existing-subscribers price. I cringe every year as I write the check to renew. But I’ve been subscribing for over eight years to the damned thing and I’m hooked on it – not all of it – but enough of it. It’s a love/hate relationship for sure. So, where is the love at – e.g. what part of it should you read?

I could tell you that I regularly study the industry news in the front of the magazine, look at the trends in the market and try to figure out the next hot topic by reading each special section, then develop a book project aimed at it ... but that would be lying – okay, okay, I did it once, but only once. I saw a trend towards sports books a number of years ago and just happened to be writing a Rugby novel at the time and thought I could be the next Malamud and my Local Anesthetic would be the next The Natural. In my fantasy world (every writer has one – the one in which he gets a call for a $100,000 book deal and gets asked to speak at the Maui Writer’s Digest Writers Conference), the sport was ready to take off here in the States. Obviously I was wrong.

I will say that for the first two years I read it cover to cover. I thought if I read the parts on the industry that I didn’t understand I could pound the knowledge into my head.

By the third year I was speed-reading these sections and others that I just didn’t care about like the regional and religion updates, who got fired and hired (it’s hard to care, even as gossip, when I don’t actually know any of them – though I do keep an eye out for agents that have broken off from an agency to start out on their own – they could be looking for new clients), the newest inventory system, or a posting on the Tasini case in the Litigation Section.

By the fourth year I got real and started reading only what truly interested me and went from a two-plus hour marathon read to a 40 minute sprint – perfect for finishing an issue on my subway ride in to work.

Let’s start with what I’ve cut out and work our way to what I’ve left in. Here, in no particular order are the cuts:

1. Articles – on new first authors. They run them a number of times each year. There’s nothing worse for a writer than to read about other writer’s success – especially on first novels. It’s so hard not to shout, “It should have been me! I could have been a contender!” It kills the ego so I no longer read them.

2. Barnes and Noble and Borders News (otherwise known as the first article in the Foreward) – Sometimes it’s titled the “Chain Store Report” but who are we kidding? I know they’re important but do I really need to know how much their sales are up or down and that the CEO of Borders Greg Josefowicz earned one million dollars in salary and bonus in 2004? And are Barnes and Noble and Borders the only booksellers in the business? Okay, let me rephrase that. Are they the only ones who count? Let me rephrase that. Do you know who I need to talk to, slip fifty bucks to, sleep with, to get an end-cap?

3. Any Special Section reports except for Comics, Graphic Novels, SciFi, or Mystery. They’re long and make me sleepy – not good if you’re standing on the subway.

4. Bestsellers – I skim the listings only, though it’s hard to pass up seeing where the DaVinci Code is at each week, even after all this time.

5. Cover Story – I’m not going to lie to you – it’s rare I read it. The stories are way too long and the topics don’t usually make my mouth water. January 30th’s Travel’s Long Odyssey, for example would only work for me if I was a travel writer, or Eugene Fodor.

6. Anything on the Frankfurt Book Fair – because I can’t go yet and get too envious of those who can.

Now here’s what I focus on:

1. The Book Reviews – no, I don’t understand why one book that gets a terrific review does not get a star and another that gets a mediocre review gets a star. What I can tell you about the process of reviewing at PW is from two colleagues who have written reviews for them. First they only got paid $45 for each review and were given a quick turn-around time leaving little actual time to read the entire book. Forty-five dollars doesn’t seem like a good, incentive-driven, hourly wage, even if you’re a speed-reader, though it is a reason to get placed on the children’s picture books reviewers list. Because of the quantity of reviews they churn out each week they must use a lot of reviewers, which brings up all kinds of quality control issues – I would think especially in the non-fiction area where background expertise could be crucial to a fair and qualified review. I do have fun searching through the back covers of books that were reviewed in PW when I’m at a bookstore searching for a blurb from their review. Sometimes even the bad reviews can find a line to pull out as a plug. But for now, while I await my first book sale, I breeze through the reviews, looking for key opening phrases like: inert second novel, muddled read, a few wedges missing, dense but lucid and accessible story lines, looking for books that either I’d like to read or that someone in my family might like to. They are all prepublication reviews so you get to know about books that are coming out one to two months before they hit the stores. Great if you love to read but deadly for the wallet. Fiction takes up the most of my time and I’m a genre freak so I peruse the Comics, SF, and Mystery sections too. Then I go through the non-fiction reviews looking for new books that might be helpful to my research (the books are new - the information fresh) for the book that I’m working on.

2. Sara Nelson Column – by the Editor-in-Chief is usually amusing and topical. And she’s THE Sara Nelson – the woman hired to turn the publication around (turn it around from what, I ask?). Personally, I think she’s done it (the turning it around part). Nice new format, jazzy colors, easier on the eyes, more stylish – still mostly the same old articles, but damn, it looks good. To be honest, though, it’s the picture of her with her arms folded across her chest that does it for me. It’s the cliché these days (everyone on TV is required by TV-land contract law to have a picture of themselves – and their ensemble if it is an ensemble show – with their arms folded across their chest and staring into the fourth wall: at us) but it reminds me of the TV show, West Wing – maybe because she looks like she should be on the show, smart and fast talking and high-powered – so her column should be smart too – or so goes my thinking.

3. The Hot Deals/News/Hollywood Reader – are keys to my future so I read them. I’m always on the lookout for new agent and editor names – you never know when your agent is going to call you and say, “I’m sorry I’m not going to be an agent anymore – I’m going to open a gourmet food store and cable cooking show, instead.” Got to keep up on the changing ouja board somehow. And the section is short – always an important factor. And here’s a trick. If you scan the section for names of agents or editors you know you can save yourself the trouble of reading about the newest writer who got a $100,000 advance or a two-book deal. You can train yourself to do this. I know because I have.

4. Author Profile/Interviews – usually are on my list but sometimes I lose patience for the ego on display. I especially hate the, “I just sent it out to this publisher I knew and it got picked up – I didn’t have to do anything,” story.

5. Articles – on bookselling and author tours. I find the information on author tours engrossing and very real because I figure I’ll learn from the mistakes of those who’ve come before me. As for the bookseller reports I think it’s good to get inside the heads of booksellers since they’ll someday be hand-selling my book. It’s also good practice at positive thinking. “They will be hand-selling my book. They will ... “

6. The Soapbox – at the end. It’s funny and topical and always has a nice illustration accompanying the essay. I love it. Besides, by the time you’ve finished the magazine and you haven’t slit your wrists, you need a good laugh.

Now you might ask why I say, “ ... haven’t slit your wrists ...” after stressing how important it is to read PW. Well, here’s the thing. It’s not easy to read. And I don’t mean from the it’s-boring-as-all-hell perspective because it’s an industry magazine. I mean because it takes a lot of emotional energy to read it. I usually save up three to six issues before I go on a week-long reading spree to catch up. As a weekly, the incoming issues can seem just like that, “Incoming!” and make you dive for your foxhole. Reading about other people’s success can be like stabbing yourself with a pitchfork over and over again. Finding out the memoir is dead and you’ve just finished your five hundred page, let-it-all-hang-out tell-all about growing up in Queens on Northern Boulevard near Car Wash row, can take you down a few pegs. You’ve got to save up your energy for this kind of thing. You’ve got to take care of yourself so that you can keep sending out your manuscripts and keep reading Jeff Herman’s Guide to Book Publishers Editors and Literary Agents in search of new people to send them to.

So where does this leave me? Well for one thing I’m glad my subscription isn’t up until the spring. I still have time to save my pennies before I have to write another check. Oh, yes, I’m not daunted at all – whether people are reading PW or not, whether I learn the secret handshake or the “open sesame” password to the hidden world of the literary elite or not (though it certainly would be a nice bonus). I’ll keep buying it because sooner or later it’ll pay off. You’ve got to know your business to be in your business. And this is a business I want to be in. This is a business I’ve spent countless hours, early morning and late at night working at, trying to get in-to. You’ve heard it said a million times, “Writer’s write.” Well, published writers also market, publicize, read, and keep up with the business of writing. Even Ben, surprised as he was to see me reading PW, knows that.

Now ... what’s that I hear about an online version and how much extra does it cost?